I know this is a silly question, but are their any really good road maps of Bonaire? Our last trip to the Carribean was to St. Thomas, and my wife and I managed to get ourselves lost quite a bit looking for "out of the way" places. (Including a visit with some pretty un-friendly locals with VERY big dogs... and to think we thought we were on a highway?!?!?) I know Bonaire is a bit smaller of an island, but any help would be much appreciated. Our rental car map in St. Thomas is what managed to get us lost in so many instances! Here's to Rand-McNally! Thanks so far for everyone's help on the board!

Hi Kurt, I bought a very detailed map at the store at the airport for $7.00 It is laminated and has just about all of the roads on it. It is by Berndtson & Berndtson and may be available at www.mapmyway.com

It is very easy to navigate Bonaire. I, too have turned up a the end of what I thought was a road; the only difference is in Bonaire you are likely to get a friendly wave and offers to get you where you need to go. Jeff

mapmyway.com doesn't appear to be anything more than a basic search engine.

I did find a listing for the Berndtson map on a couple of bookstore sites, but they're all sold out. Here's the Amazon link for reference:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/3928855026/qid=1086314084/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-2728095-0559136?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I got a pretty nifty map from Calabash Skyviews:

http://www.skyviews.com/bonaire/index.html

specifically:

http://www.skyviews.com/bonaire/mapintropage.html

Gee whiz, I should have checked the link out before I posted. The mapmyway site is printed on the map; it appears that in cyberland things do not remain stationary. Anyway it is a really good map.

At the tourist office and at the car rental you get decent maps free of charge.
They will show you all the roads on Bonaire.

They will not show you all the dirt roads. But for me that was part of the fun. Just drive into the "Kunuku" and see where you end up.
I never met an angry Bonairian till now, when I ended near his/her house.

Some of the dirt roads can be in bad shape. So don't do this with a "normal" car. A "dive-mobil" will be sufficient in most cases, but drive very slow and carefully

Kurt,
Try this link for the B&B map.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/caribmart/bonairemapbybb.html

It should have every road you want to travel on it...and then some.

MJ

A similar thread like this resulted in my purchase of two different laminated maps of Bonaire. Both worked out great during my stay as we were not able to do any diving and did a lot of topside exploring.

Good find, Kurt. I just placed my order. The Calabash map is nice, but just not as detailed as I'd like. Will be interesting to see how this one measures up.

My B&B map arrived in the mail yesterday. Speedy delivery! I now recommend this one over the Calabash map if you're looking for good detail in roads and names, although I'm happy to own both as they each have some minor unique features. This also labels most of the beach and dive sites directly beside the site location instead of linking the site to a legend on a different part of the map.

The map itself is roughly 30% larger, and a laminate cardboard vs. paper.

Well worth the $11.

Brian,

Based on your post I think I will order the map as well, in anticipation of my upcoming trip. I am somewhat of a map collector anyway.

Thanks for all of the help. Hopefully I will be able to find one when I arrive. 2 Days and counting!

Kurt,
If I remember correctly, we bought our B&B map at the gift shop at the airport...four years ago. If not there I'm sure there are other places that will have them...maybe Lisa's Gas. Have fun and enjoy your trip.

MJ

Kurt,

When you rent a car, you'll get one free of charge.
If you go to the tourist office, they'll give you one (or two) for free to.
Is probably not as detailed as the commercial ones but it served me fine.
All the (non dirt) roads are on it and also all the divespots.

(Message edited by bpsmits on June 10, 2004)

Brian,

I bet Caribmart.com is wondering about all the sudden interest in Bonaire maps - mine arrived yesterday as well!

Belinda

*laf*

Blame it on Mike Jones for providing the link. I'm sure they don't mind the business, though.

Hell, if we can't be there, we might as well be able to see clearly where we'd want to be!

Mike and Brian

Thanks for the info on B&B map. I ordered it today. I will be arriving Bonaire (first time visit)on Sept 13 for a week. Really looking forward to this visit as all the BT reports are great and informative (both honest pros and cons)

An even easier way to get a map might me to call the Bonaire Tourism Board in New York. They have an 800 # and the map would be free, not a bad deal!

Has anyone bought the map that's produced locally on Curacao? Here's the link at CaribMart:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/caribmart/drivdivmapof1.html

I was wondering if it had any better street-level detail. I already have the B&B map... but no earthly idea how good it is (it's my first trip).

I edit a new map which is free and is generally available at the airport, TCB or a number of retail outlets and also carentals as well.

It would be nice to find a map with all the roads in Santa Barbara on it; I have three different and if they do have some SB roads, they don't have them all. I'll ask a friend to pick up your new map in October, Michael. Thanks for the update.

Carl